First Impressions
by Keiran
Summary: Finished. Star Wars Universe fusion, no romance, slight gore. Kids usually cost us an arm and a leg. Little did Duo Maxwell know, in his case it was going to be pretty much literal.
1. Part 1

Author: Keiran  
Title: First Impressions 1/2  
Rating: 14+  
Warnings: slight gore, no romance.  
Characters: Duo, Wufei.  
Genre: Action/Adventure.  
Summary: Star Wars universe fusion. Kids often cost us an arm and a leg – in Duo Maxwell's case, the statement is literal.

Notes: I am a SW geek. I couldn't pass a chance to do g-boys with light sabres. This one was originally an explaining one-shot, that somehow had gotten a life of its own. I have a 1x2 sequel in mind (so far in the form of several LJ drabbles), if I manage to draw a plot for it, that is. Enjoy!

Duo is about 23 in this fic. Wufei is 13.

Thanks to Shenlong Deb, for betaing!

xxxXXXxxx

Cursing with a fluency far beyond an average Jedi's skills, Duo decapitated yet another droid-guard. Not bothering to return his light sabre to its rightful place on his belt, he stalked on, creatively presenting the parentage and ancestry of one Chang Wufei, in a way that would make neither proud.

"All that fucking trouble for one pigheaded initiate. I really ought to get paid," he muttered to himself, relieving yet another droid of its so-called brain unit. Hacking and slashing his way through the metallic crowd, Duo's way and monologue came to an abrupt end in front of huge, heavy-looking doors. "Here goes nothing," he muttered, looking for a lock. Finding none, he shrugged and detached a small explosive from his belt and attached it to the crease in the gate. Flicking his long braid behind his back, he withdrew a few meters, picked up a random gun from the floor and fired it at the charge.

"Uncivilized they might be, but damn, aren't they useful sometimes. It would have taken me a whole three minutes to appropriate a detonator," he announced, carelessly throwing the blaster backwards.

It came as a total surprise to the droid trying to sneak up on the young Jedi, when the blaster stopped mid-air and fired in his direction. The knight didn't even bother to turn, before striding through the revealed room and further into the palace.

"Surprise," he intoned evenly, making his way into what seemed to be a control room, of some sort. Two heads turned in his direction. "Chang Wufei, I assume, as well as Dekim Barton. That be your given name, or just an artistic alias?" Both the older man and the boy stared at the long-haired Jedi, long and hard.

"I was expecting the council to send someone; but you?" contempt and amused disbelief (or offended pride) sounding loud clear in his voice, Dekim shook his head. Duo merely grinned in response.

"I was expecting you to at least have some guards in here, to tell you the truth. A five-year-old with a can opener could grind these droids to dust."

"We didn't know you'd arrive this fast," the thirteen-year-old boy piped up, a ferocious expression on his round face. Duo resisted the urge to go 'Aww'. Dekim had less trouble – obviously, this wasn't quite what he would have wanted out in the open.

"I surprise even myself, sometimes," Duo grinned rather unnervingly. Well, it wasn't his fault the council usually sent him as far from Coruscant as possible, thus resulting in him being in the direct neighbourhood to the Force-forsaken place Barton chose as his base.

"Enough," Dekim growled. "What do you want?"

"Let's see. I want the kiddo back. That's one. I want the detonator to the bomb you kindly left in the Temple; that's two. I want a chocolate sundae with fresh cherries; that's three. I want you to jump off a cliff; that's four." A pause. "I am prepared to negotiate in the case of the latter two though." He noted, with a mix of surprise and satisfaction, that the black-haired boy blinked at the mention of the bomb.

"The order obviously suffers more than I thought, if they sent a clown like you to fight us." Dekim said with a snort.

"That's only one man's opinion," Duo countered cheerfully. Barton glared at the young man, but relaxed only moments later.

"I do not take kindly to being made fun off. Wufei," he called, "Attack." The teenager spared no second thought, before springing into action. Duo looked only vaguely surprised.

"I sincerely hope your plan does not depend on this little brat stopping me?" he asked, barely glancing in the black-eyed boy's direction, as the blades of their sabres met. Wufei gritted his teeth.

"Don't insult me, you bastard!" he yelled, trying to stab his older colleague. Duo laughed briefly and shook his head. With a quick twist of the handle, the blue blade hooked the silver one and brought it up sharply, allowing the knight to pry the metal tube from the initiate's hand.

"Good technique, boy," he said in an encouraging tone, "but you suck on the delivery." With a well-aimed kick, Wufei flew backwards and into the wall, where he sat dazed for a few moments.

"Now, Mr Barton, sir. Please kindly stop the count down. Or – and I promise you this – you will end up in as many pieces as the Temple."

Dekim glared hatefully at the young Jedi. "Do not assume I will be defeated easily," he growled, fury colouring his tone.

"I am, 'sure' hoping you will refrain from fighting," Duo said calmly. He had heard the stories once he arrived at the temple on Coruscant at the age of ten. Barton was among the few initiates who didn't find their own masters and left the order wholly, with only the most basic of training. No one said it explicitly, but hints carried on well enough that Dekim was simply too cowardly to face the challenge.

Somewhere behind the knight's back, Wufei rose to his feet a little unsteadily. Duo turned slightly, keeping most of his attention focused on Barton.

"Do not attack me again, boy," he drawled. "I will not hesitate to take you out."

"You dishonourable bastard!" the boy sputtered. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Wanna bet? And who're calling dishonourable? The old coot here is all set to blow the Jedi Temple sky-high; that's honourable? How?" Wufei paused.

"He would not. He is a Jedi."

"Funny, he looks a lot like Dekim Barton to me," Duo said, raising a brow. "But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt," he said, bowing graciously and activated his light sabre. "Fight me. Now." He shot a pointed look to the weapon the older man had strapped to his waist. His suppressed, sadistic side gave a wild grin at the gleam of sheer panic in the man's eyes.

Yet he was pleasantly surprised when the older man decided to rise to the challenge. 'Wow, this must be a first,' he though sardonically. But then again, Duo mused, had he refused or run, Wufei would probably not follow. The sheer talent the boy displayed was most likely indispensable to someone like Barton.

Even though he strongly suspected this was a fight he could win by dodging alone, the violet eyes narrowed, as Duo cleared his mind of the running commentary and focused on the duel. He might taunt and jeer, but he never underestimated his enemies. Even when facing an initiate, and a most likely under-trained ex-initiate, he focused as if he was to fight a legion of Sith lords. After all, there were two of them. He had a lot less space for mistakes, the violet-eyed man thought, whirling between his opponents.

Catching the first horizontal attack of the green blade, the knight took a step to the left, leaving plenty of space for his own sword to whiz through the air and bounce the well-aimed hack, that the boy executed, away from his shoulders. In no time at all he realized, that for Barton the fight was hopeless either way – even if he failed and Barton did kill him as he so obviously wanted. Wufei wanted – yet, at least – no corpses on his personal account.

Which ultimately led to the question, 'What exactly was it he wanted to achieve with this stunt?'

Deciding it was high time he found out, Duo dropped his light sabre in mid-turn, caught it immediately with his left hand and blocked a horizontal slash behind his back. With an almost unnoticeable bounce, he executed a perfect back flip landing on the console a few meters away. The pair were better than he'd anticipated but still well within the estimated levels. The fact that they shared no bond made their fighting haphazard and uncoordinated. A potential danger, but only if he got really careless.

All things considered, he wasn't even amused, like he'd been when master Windu ended up flat on his ass because he thought a ten-year-old Corellian Jedi initiate could not hold his own. It was largely sheer luck and surprise that made him fall (he cheated, a little, if full truth was to be told), but still.

"Why do you follow the loser, Wuffers?" Duo asked, observing his adversaries carefully. "You're far too talented to waste yourself like that."

"Shut up, you bastard!" the child yelled, launching into the air and attacking yet again. Barton, the Jedi noted, was already slightly winded and withdrawing. Smirking lightly, Duo made to follow, pushing the teenager after him with a few well-aimed pokes.

It wasn't particularly exciting, but still of amusement value, poking at a ferocious-looking, adorable boy, whose little face was so scrunched up that he actually resembled master Yoda.

Not to mention the expression on Barton's face, when he found himself backed into the industrial section of the base, complete with construction droids, furnaces, liquid metal and overwhelming heat.

Seemed a little cliché, but hey, he wasn't the one writing the script. Now he would have to pay attention so that the boy didn't hurt himself accidentally. Part of his mission was to retrieve him, alive and whole, for the council to execute. Or scold, or whatever they felt like doing.

It seemed though that worrying about Wufei wasn't all that important at the moment, as the battle would prove to be short-lived. Barton had seemed to realize that a fully trained Jedi knight in battle mode is a lot less friendly and inclined to perform much more complicated (and deadly) manoeuvres, than those he'd encountered as a child in training sessions. It also occurred to him that the other exit in the hall (namely, the one without said Jedi knight in front of it) was far, far away.

"Drop your weapon, Jedi," he growled, his abrupt realization finally breaking through some walls in his brain. Fumbling only slightly, he fished a vial from the folds of his robe, a vial roughly as long as half a light sabre and of about the same diameter. The long-haired man stopped dead in his tracks. "Or I will detonate the bomb in the temple."

Out of the corner of his eye, Duo noticed the small frame of Wufei pause. There was an almost imperceptible tremor running through his body.

"What?" he asked very slowly. The knight gritted his teeth and cursed his soft spot for and, by extension, the ease with which he was able to tune in to kids. He could sense it from a parsec away, that this boy meant no actual harm. Sure, he was a small, chauvinistic prick, who yelled, mocked and complained a lot, but there was a very sweet child underneath it all. If one was prepared to wait, be yelled at, complained about, insulted and discriminated against, that was.

Nevertheless, he hated seeing the boy be robbed of his illusions like that.

"Barton," he said finally, his tone losing both teasing qualities and pleasantness. "You will drop the detonator. And you will do so NOW."

"Yelling at me will not help you, Jedi," the man sneered.

"You lied to me!" Wufei cried, struggling to sound like the Jedi he hoped to be and not a lost little boy. "Why?"

"Barton, I won't ask again. Drop the detonator," Duo commanded sharply, focusing all of himself on the small device. The violet fire, alighted in his eyes by passion, was rumoured to unnerve even droids; its full effect on living beings, it was said, was almost as effective as mind-control. It was never proven though.

Therefore, to say the older man felt disturbed, would be an understatement. His universe narrowed in that single moment, centring on the blazing orbs among reddish haze of the industrial unit. Considering he was not of the brave persuasion, his option for running wasn't a big surprise.

Under-trained he might have been, but no Jedi skills are necessary to have a hunch that negotiating with (or even standing up to) that gaze, would not end up favourably for him. With a malicious sneer, largely designed to mask the uneasiness, he extended his hand and dropped the detonator.

Straight into a bucket of liquid iron, just off the pathway.

"Go looking for it, if you care that much," he yelled, moving to run. He didn't get far. Duo, though his time for decision-making was cut short, reacted immediately. Sending Barton and Wufei into their nearest walls simultaneously, he jumped off the pathway.

Rolling up the sleeve on his right hand, he hesitated briefly. "All this to save the pompous assholes of the council…" 'And all the baby Jedi,' he added mentally. Grinding his teeth and clenching his eyes, he plunged the bared arm into the – fortunately fairly shallow – pail.

All things considered, he said to himself wryly, he shouldn't be surprised that his arm felt as if it was being barbecued. 'The bloody training did not included diving through fire!' his mind wailed. This was **agonizing**!

So he screamed.

Twenty seven excruciating seconds later, his face flushed from the heat, yet somewhat pale at the same time, Duo Maxwell staggered back and sat heavily on the walkway, the detonator clutched in the smoking remains of his fingers. Wufei, having gotten back to his feet a moment before, walked to him unsteadily. Black eyes wide, bile rising in his throat, he watched as the Jedi tore off the cap on the device with the trembling fingers of his left hand, releasing several fat glow-bugs. Removing the electrical circuit, he threw it back to the melting pot.

Having done that, he fell to the floor which seemed ice-cold by comparison. He regretted immediately the glance he cast at his arm as the attempt to assess the damage resulted in him rolling to his stomach and throwing up violently.

A mass of charred tissue and blackened bones would do that to the owner of said limb.

"Hope you're happy now, kid," he managed to grind out eventually, cold sweat running down his face. "I fucking **liked** this shirt." Getting to his knees clumsily, he managed to get up, with Wufei's help. Unfortunately, a split second later he was forced to roll away, ending up on the floor once again, as Dekim Barton was apparently looking for notches on his light sabre.

"Look asshole, back off will you?" Duo yelled, getting unsteadily to his feet, his face paling rapidly.

"I think not. You don't look so cocky now, do you? What's the matter, the fire got to you?"

"No, your lame lines did." The Jedi rolled his eyes. "Fuck off, will you?" Dodging yet another feeble attempt at taking his head off, Duo rolled his eyes. And almost fainted from the effort. 'Well,' he thought, 'one thing I need to admire is how he actually brought me down to his level of physical fitness.'

"I wonder how you will get out of this one, Jedi?" Duo stopped and gave the man a look. Locating a loose piece of equipment, he made it connect sharply with Barton's skull with the aid of the Force.

"How's that for getting out of this one?" he asked the dropping body cheerfully. Or at least with as much cheer as he could muster, when the slightest move brought his injured arm into contact with things of no soothing qualities whatsoever. In the brief silence Wufei approached him hesitantly, trying to ignore the heap that was Barton on the floor.

**TBC.**


	2. Part 2

Author: Keiran  
Title: First Impressions 2/2  
Rating: 14+  
Warnings: slight gore, no romance.  
Characters: Duo, Wufei.  
Genre: Action/Adventure, or: The Pathetic Excuse To Give Duo a Sexy Metal Arm. Thank you.  
Summary: Star Wars universe fusion. Kids often cost us an arm and a leg – in Duo Maxwell's case, the statement is literal.

Notes: I am a SW geek. I couldn't pass a chance to do g-boys with light sabres. This one was originally an explaining one-shot, that somehow had gotten a life of its own. I have a 1x2 sequel in mind (so far in the form of several LJ drabbles), if I manage to draw a plot for it, that is. Enjoy!

Thanks to Shenlong Deb, for betaing!

xxxXXXxxx

Leaning heavily on the teenager's shoulder, the young knight made his way out of the hall, not without giving one last, not too gentle, Force-prod to the fallen figure of older man, fighting the temptation to drop a wall on him.

The temptation to drop a wall on a squad of droid guards, however, was not fought but embraced eagerly, with much glee even.

"Mr Jedi, sir?" Duo heard Wufei say suddenly as they entered the hangars.

"Duo Maxwell," he put in helpfully.

"Master Maxwell, sir," the child continued in a voice that was timid, considering his usual tone. "Shouldn't we take… him back as well?" The question awarded him a thoughtful glance.

"Normally, yes, but forgive me if I'm not quite up to the challenge at the moment. And you cannot go alone," the knight replied, grunting in pain again. Waving his hand in the air vaguely, he opened the entrance to a slender star ship stationed in a hangar. "On board you go. And the cretin will be found. As soon as I can hold a sabre in my right hand again."

The little boy looked at the aforementioned hand in a mix of awe, guilt and disgust. His musings were however broken by Duo yet again. "Wuffers, don't stare. It's not polite. That's one. Furthermore, I don't enjoy the stench of smoking flesh either. I think it'll be better for both of us if we ignored it, right now."

Wufei bit back the instinctual 'My name is **Wufei**'. "Yes sir."

"Good to know you understand. Now, the pilot's seat is the one on the left," the older man pointed, finding a first aid kit, applying a disinfector and wrapping the sorry remains of his limb in sterile cloth to prevent infection, all the while fighting with the gut reaction of his stomach. "I **liked** this arm, Force-damn it," he muttered sourly, temporarily winning the fight with nausea and dizziness.

"What?"

"Do I look like I'm in any condition to stay on top of all of the clicking?" Duo raised a brow, wriggling the fingers of his left hand. The boy flushed and immediately obeyed the command. "Don't worry much. I have an emergency program for occasions such as these, but monitoring it still wouldn't hurt."

"Why can't you be monitoring?"

"'Cause I predict I will not exactly be conscious in a little while," the knight answered evenly.

"I thought that Jedi knights could ignore pain?" Wufei asked, a frown forming on his face. He regretted his words immediately, but Duo didn't seem offended.

"All things considered, I would think I am doing a splendid job, wouldn't you say?" the man answered grinning widely. "Anyway," he added, pointing to a screen on the left, his voice barely shaking. "There. Find 'Emergency' and follow takeoff procedures. Once we reach the orbit, make sure the coordinates are set for Coruscant and – once everything is beeping cheerfully – activate the hyperdrive. The lever below the big, red button," he added helpfully, seeing the boy's confused gaze. "Getting there might take a while, so help yourself to a bed and something to eat. Don't wake me until we reach the bloody planet. Shinigami sends a distress signal to the temple automatically, whenever the emergency system is activated, so they will be ready to dock us in."

"Okay." A pause. "Sir – why didn't you just use the Force to find the detonator?" Wufei asked a little fearfully. Duo sighed in response. "I would have caught it – but you stopped me. Why?"

"'Cause the thing was Force-sensitive," he answered finally. "It's fairly simple, really," he continued, seeing the question marks form in the air. "Jedi use those whenever the need to blow something serious up arises, especially in dangerous circumstances. Beats me how the cretin managed to learn that."

"The thing's made of a tube with an air filter, to allow the flow of oxygen. Inside there's a few fireflies, which glow whenever they feel a concentration of the Force. Obviously, the stronger the concentration, the brighter the glow. And they don't require much at all to start glowing." Grunting, Duo arranged his right arm in his lap. "Add in a photosensitive circuit and voila! Unfortunately, extreme heat also causes the bugs to glow. So it needed to be extracted from that damn bucket quickly." Fitting himself in a chair as best as he could, he tried to relax. His voice gradually grew softer as he whispered any information Wufei might find useful over the course of next two days, as they journeyed to Coruscant.

Granted, there was a healthy dose of 'Do not, under any circumstances, mess with weaponry, navigation, paint work – I spent ages on that one – electrical circuits, anything that sparks. Exercise extreme caution when using the kitchen. Do not make a mess. Do not breathe on integrated circuits. In other words: do not harm my ship, in any way. Or else', but all in all, it was pretty friendly.

"Wufei," Duo said finally, his voice barely audible. "I have an enormous soft spot for kids. I really do. But if there's a **scratch** on my baby when I wake up, you will wish your grandparents lived their whole lives on opposite ends of the galaxy. I promise you that."

With the final words still ringing in the air, Wufei watched as the older man finally slipped into deep meditative trance. Releasing the breath he didn't realize he was holding when the console started beeping, he initiated the jump into hyperspace.

xxXXXxx

Wufei sighed heavily. His fate was not going to be pleasant. No one seemed exactly pleased with his stunt, especially considering the state Duo was in when they returned. The council might have been in perpetual state of annoyance regarding the Corellian, but they respected his skills, if not the man himself. True, they made sure he had as little as possible contact with the easily influenced initiates or padawans. Or even the rest of the knights. Over all, however, Duo was universally loved.

Especially now that his old master was a part of the council.

Trudging behind master Yoda, Wufei tried to look as small as possible. It seemed that all of the world was giving him disapproving stares. Not that he blamed them really.

Eventually the ancient master and his charge made it to the hospital in which Duo was stationed ever since their return. A tall medical droid met them on the landing platform.

"Master Jedi, we are pleased to receive you," it greeted formally in a slightly monotone – yet pleasing – voice. "Follow me please." Rolling away at a pace that master Yoda could follow, she continued to speak. "We have fitted Knight Maxwell with an artificial limb, as per your request, however he insisted it should be build around the remaining bone structure." Her tone suggested she disapproved most strongly. If it wasn't for the fact that Wufei knew 2-C4 was a droid, he would have sworn there was a hint of aggravation in her voice. Clearly, the boy thought with some amusement, she couldn't comprehend living beings' attachment to the flimsy, calcium-based framework.

"All that remains is the final testing phase," the droid remarked, directing the visitors into a medical room, where the knight in question was chattering away to the hearing circuits of another medical droid. The monologue stopped the moment the man noted the arrival.

"Master Yoda! Glad to see you, I am," he announced cheerfully, waving at the pair with his left hand, the other immobilized in a sterile, transparent bubble, already put together, but not closed up. "Hi Wuffers!"

The friendly welcome earned him an equally friendly whack on the shin. "Show proper respect, you will," the small green goblin said, glaring a little. Duo chuckled.

"Yes, master." Returning his attention to the medical droid, he stared fixedly on his new appendage, reflexively obeying the commands the robot issued from time to time. Wufei shuffled a little, watching the tedious job of locking the various parts of the metallic arm onto their designated positions, each circuit tested with a briefest electrical charge.

It took a few minutes, but eventually the process was completed and the limb released from the bubble. "It is performing at 121.453 standard model efficiency," 2-C5 announced. His female counterpart would have blinked, had it not been for the lack of eyelids. And eyes, for that matter.

"Impossible. This is a vastly inferior structure, based on living tissue; the odds of it operating at more than 85.4443 efficiency are 17,388 to 1!" Duo grinned pulling his shirt back on.

"Let's leave them to argue it out," he suggested, scooping master Yoda in one arm and hugging him tight. "Nice to see you, master. You too, Wuffers. Now, see if I can get someone to lend me a hovercraft we shall; on Shinigami check, I must."

There was very little stopping Wufei from breaking out in laughter. When he realized that his chances of remaining in the order were brief anyway, the very little dwindled down to nothing, allowing the boy to chuckle.

"Funny for you, this is?" master Yoda grumbled. "No respect elderly these days get. No respect." Over the old being's green head, Duo and Wufei exchanged amused glances. "Laugh at me, you will not," the tiny master shrieked, making use of his staff yet again and whacking the unruly knight lightly on the head. "Carry me in silence, you will!"

"Yes, master," Duo replied, with a disarming grin. Yoda grumbled a little longer, but the soft sounds were barely noticeable to begin with and grew quieter with every step.

As it turned out, there was no speeder Duo was allowed to borrow, or even pilot – the driver from the temple clutched the wheel of his vehicle tightly, when he noticed who was walking down the ramp, and didn't let go until the violet-eyed knight was seated in a back seat, seatbelts securely fastened.

In fact, the poor man barely dared to breath during the ride. He only exhaled properly once the long braid was long gone from sight. Most of the Jedi were already carrying an official ban from driving; Duo, thanks to his forced avoidance of Coruscant, managed to escape that fate, though apparently he was around often enough to compel many of drivers and pilots to cut their hair really short. Urban myths travelled fast on the capitol planet.

Despite the shaking of the unfortunate driver, the three Jedi managed to get to the temple in one piece. The young knight immediately ran to torment the ground support staff, who was temporarily in charge of his Shinigami.

"Never change, will he," Yoda sighed. "Come, young one," he continued, turning to Wufei. "The council your fate now shall discuss," the small being continued gravely. Trudging after the Jedi master, the boy sighed. That demeanour didn't offer much hope.

He left the council chamber half an hour later, his worst fears confirmed. Sighing softly, he made his way to his room and started packing. He didn't hurry. He didn't want to hurry. He didn't want to do anything particularly. Except possibly curling up in **his** bed and crying, but only girls and sissies did that, and he was neither.

He was neither…

His resolve was almost broken when a knock sounded on the door. Without giving him time to reply, they slid open revealing Duo Maxwell. Wufei quickly wiped his face, just to be sure there was absolutely nothing betraying how he really felt, and turned to face the knight.

"Hey kid," Duo greeted cheerfully. "Done with packing yet?"

"Yeah. Almost," the black-eyed boy replied softly, putting the last of his things into the bag.

"Good, good," Duo seemed impatient for some reason, the boy noted. Almost as if he was expecting something to blow up. "Grab your stuff and we're off."

"You'll be taking me to that place?" Wufei asked, 'that place' sounding rather resentfully.

"Yeah. Something like that. Now move your skinny butt, I'm not made of time." With a final sigh, the teenager shouldered his bag and walked out of his – now previously his – room. He was going to miss it. Not that anyone would ever know.

Halfway down to the hangar, they were stopped by a blue Twi-Lekkian padawan. "Knight Maxwell," she called. "The council wishes for you to come up to the tower immediately."

To the utmost surprise of everybody present, especially the mild-mannered youths, Duo let out a fluent stream of curses, using words not only banned from the temple but filed as 'inexistent'. Grabbing Wufei's smaller hand with his mechanical arm, he broke into a run, dragging the confused child past the astonished Jedi.

Reaching the hangars and Shinigami at record time, the knight set about preparing the ship for immediate takeoff, leaving Wufei to reach his own conclusions. When the man finally fell into the pilot's chair, the ship shooting through the atmosphere, the general shape of the questions formed in the boy's mind. Before he could voice any though, Duo broke the silence.

"This isn't going to make us more popular with the old coots, I fear. You either live with that, or I phone home right away and tell them I'll just drop you off at what's-its-name place so you can farm to your heart's content," he said, gazing at Wufei heavily. Wufei returned his gaze with a hint of exasperation, excitement and desperation, hoping to hell that the latter two were masked with the former.

"You don't have any idea what you're getting into, do you?" Wufei drawled, though the excited 'anything but farming!' begged to be let out. Duo gave him his best 'I R cLulesS' grin.

"Not the slightest clue."

The boy snorted. "I suspected as much. I suppose I can live with you." He fervently prayed it didn't sound half as desperately joyful as he felt.

"Cool. Lesson one. Every action has its consequences," Master Duo began his lecture.

"I gathered that," his dutiful pupil replied sourly, feeling the slight twinge that came with a glance to Duo's metallic right arm which glinted when the sun hit it at the right angle. "What's your point?"

"The point is, my inbox is being filled with messages from angry council members as we speak. Drop master Gee and master Yoda a line, ignore the rest. Tell them we shall hide out in the Outer Rim, until the tempers cool down significantly."

"You're not that brilliant with this consequences business either, are you," the as-of-now padawan observed sourly, his fingers delivering final clicks to the laconic message.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Duo replied, grinning brightly as Shinigami made the jump into hyperspace.

**THE END.

* * *

**

Finished! So - shall I try for the 1x2 sequel? 


End file.
